An Arctic Blast On Ancient Hunting Grounds

Hiraeth (Welsh): A spiritual longing for a home which maybe never was. Nostalgia for ancient places to which we cannot return. It is the echo of the lost places of our soul's past and our grief for them. It is in the wind and the rocks and the waves. It is nowhere and it is everywhere.

***

There was a lightening, if you like, post that long ago election in May of 2022. As if at the end of a long court case, where justice was not just done but seen to be done.

The sour dispirited mood that had settled on the population, that same feeling you get when you know you're being robbed and know you're being lied to and there's nothing you can do about it, appeared to have lifted; at least from his own small, casual observations. 

Of course, there was also a sense that it was happening far away, that creatures born aloft would not be conquered, that the celebrations of the so-called Labor party, which had long ago ceased representing the interests of Australia's working class, seen on screens and heard on news broadcasts, were happening somewhere else, to another class, or stratum of society, that it was at once at a distance and at our expense. 

But for the moment, anyway, there was a honeymoon. 

A new face for the so-called progressives in Anthony Albanese, and a new face for the conservatives with Peter Dutton, who would, his supporters hoped, return the party to its conservative roots. 

The obscene orgy, the pillaging of the public purse which had occurred under former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, had vanished into the eternal now, as if there was no history, and the sullen outrage vanquished. The quadrupling of the national debt, the vast transfer of wealth from the middle to the upper classes, the billions of dollars dished out to Morrison's mates, "we look after our own", all of it suddenly seemed as nothing, something to be forgiven and forgotten, for both parties had been party to the authoritarian derangement which had seized the country under the cover of Covid, and which had done such enormous damage to the country. 

At the same time as the global warming gang had seized power an arctic blast was enveloping the country; and there in that humble abode the wind whipped nearby trees and gusted around the house. He was cold, always cold, as if born for a warmer climate, and the settling calm as he adjusted to changed circumstance left him, to a certain extent at least, bewildered and confused. Not quite sure what was at play; or who to trust. "I'll help you." "I, too, have changed." Stray wisps. All of it in secret. The science of the voices in your head. 

Well, God speaks through coincidence, as the old saying goes, and there were many coincidences about to envelop him. Or them. 

MAINSTREAM NEWS

https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-weather-updates-polar-blast-cold-weather-gale-winds-floods/fe823dc8-61a9-4560-8c70-7be0c42b695d

Snow has fallen in Sydney's western region as an icy polar blast grips most of Australia in time for the start of winter.

The strong cold front began surging through South Australia into Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland on Monday, bringing a wave of below-average temperatures.

In the Blue Mountains region of NSW, snow began falling on the Great Western Highway about 30km west of Lithgow.

Daniel Andrews' department told to release COVID-19 pandemic surveys in the 'strong interest' of the Victorian public

The Victorian Premier's department are attempting to overturn a decision to release secret documents from the height of the coronavirus pandemic using taxpayers' money.

The Victorian Department of the Premier and Cabinet (DPC) have launched a last-minute taxpayer-funded bid to stop the release of secret COVID-19 pandemic papers.

Daniel Andrews' office was instructed by Information Commissioner Sven Bluemmel to hand over the documents, which included surveys and emails, that detailed the reactions of the community on how he and the government performed in 2020.

QDOS polled members of the public before and after the second lockdown, that lasted 112 days, to give the Premier, his leadership and how it acted "on advice from the health officials" a score out of ten, redacted documents showed.

Victorians were also questioned on their thoughts about the COVID-19 restrictions and whether it was "much too soft, too soft, about right, too harsh, much too harsh".

Another query posed was if "you are more concerned about the coronavirus impact on health and society OR its impact on jobs and the economy".

The Australian newspaper requested the DPC for the 64 documents under the Freedom of Information but Mr Andrews' office refused to release or hand over seven specific papers with heavy redactions.